Peer Feedback Content Quality: The added value of structuring peer assessment

The present studies examined the added value of structuring the peer assessment (PA) process for the peer feedback (PFB) content quality in a wiki-based computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment in higher education, by firstly investigating a varying structuring degree in the peer feedback template (study 1) and secondly, by further structuring the role of both the assessor and assessee in the PFB process (study 2). Results of the first study revealed that structuring the PA process could be advantageous for the peer feedback content quality, while the results for study 2 are underway. The main aim of this poster presentation is to illustrate the impact of instructional interventions in which we further specify the role of the assessor and/or assessee, in order to enhance the content quality of peer feedback messages

Effects of immersion in inquiry-based learning on student teachers’ educational beliefs

Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle of providing instruction in line with what teachers are expected to do in their classroom. So far, however, relatively little is known about how this impacts teachers' educational beliefs, even though these beliefs ultimately determine their classroom behavior. The present study therefore investigates how immersion in inquiry-based learning affects student teachers' beliefs about knowledge goals, in addition to their self-efficacy for inquiry. In total, 302 student history teachers participated in a 4-h long inquiry activity designed within the WISE learning environment, and completed a pre- and posttest right before and after the intervention. Multilevel analyses suggest that the intervention had a significant positive effect on the value that student teachers attributed to procedural knowledge goals, or learning how historical knowledge is constructed, and on student teachers' self-efficacy for conducting inquiries. Despite these general positive results, however, the results also show that the impact of the intervention differed significantly across students. In particular, it appears that immersion in IBL had little effect on a subgroup of 25 student-teachers, who held largely content-oriented beliefs. Based on these findings, the present study discusses a number of implications for professional development on IBL

Teachers' adoption of inquiry-based learning activities : the importance of beliefs about education, the self, and the context

Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers' beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers' adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers' use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers' decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers' use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed

Finite-width effects on threshold corrections to squark and gluino production

We study the implication of finite squark and gluino decay widths for threshold resummation of squark and gluino production cross sections at the LHC. We find that for a moderate decay width (Gamma/m < 5%) higher-order soft and Coulomb corrections are appropriately described by NLL calculations in the zero-width limit including the contribution from bound-state resonances below threshold, with the remaining uncertainties due to finite-width effects of a similar order as the ambiguities of threshold-resummed higher-order calculations.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures. v2: minor typos corrected and clarifications adde

Cellular Probabilistic Automata - A Novel Method for Uncertainty Propagation

We propose a novel density based numerical method for uncertainty propagation under certain partial differential equation dynamics. The main idea is to translate them into objects that we call cellular probabilistic automata and to evolve the latter. The translation is achieved by state discretization as in set oriented numerics and the use of the locality concept from cellular automata theory. We develop the method at the example of initial value uncertainties under deterministic dynamics and prove a consistency result. As an application we discuss arsenate transportation and adsorption in drinking water pipes and compare our results to Monte Carlo computations

The Flemish movement and Flemish nationalism: instruments, historiography and debates

This article gives a concise overview of the historiography of the Flemish movement and the Belgian nationality conflict. It addresses the main working instruments and scientific infrastructure. Furthermore it provides an overview of the basic works and the most significant literature in English, French and German. It detects the theoretical frameworks and gives a brief overview of the smouldering historiographical debates: the social players of the Flemish movement in the 19th century; the impact of World War I on Flemish nation building; the Flemish movement during the interwar years and World War II; the ideological developments of the Flemish movement and the Belgian state reform after World War II